Trump's decision to halt taxes earned the top 10 richest people $135 billion.
Tesla CEO and close ally of Trump, Elon Musk, became the highest earner of the day with a personal gain of $35.9 billion.
Following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement last week to suspend record-high tariffs on countries outside of China for 90 days, the stock market surge generated a total of $135.33 billion for the world's 10 wealthiest individuals. Trump announced on Wednesday in the Oval Office at the White House that he had decided to lower the tariffs imposed on countries outside of China to a baseline level of 10%. With the new decision, the U.S. will apply a 10% tariff for 90 days on all the countries where tariffs were previously announced. The tariff rate on China will remain at 124%. After Trump announced the withdrawal of his tax plans, stocks that had been fluctuating for days showed a sudden rise. The world's richest individuals also benefited from this sudden increase. According to Business Insider, Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and close ally of Trump, achieved the largest single-day gain with $35.9 billion. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made $25.8 billion, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gained $18.5 billion, famous investor Warren Buffett earned $8.12 billion, one of Tesla's largest investors, Larry Ellison, gained $15.5 billion, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates earned $4.81 billion. French billionaire Bernard Arnault, however, fell with a loss of $5.7 billion, becoming the only person in the top 10 to incur a loss despite the tax suspension. On the other hand, despite these massive single-day gains, the world's wealthiest individuals are still in the red year-to-date. The top 10 have lost a total of $244.36 billion so far this year.
Allegations of Manipulation Just hours before announcing the suspension of tariffs on Wednesday, President Trump had made posts on his social media accounts that were believed to advise investors to make purchases. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, "GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT." Following this, some analysts accused Trump of stock market manipulation.